If you ever thought it would be funny to get a personalized licence plate with 4 PLAY on it, here’s a hint: ICBC has heard that joke before.

Many, many times before.

Indeed, since 1987, ICBC has rejected 4 PLAY as a licence plate 58 times, making it the most commonly rejected personal plate in the province.

Add in a couple variations — 4-PLAY, 4PLAY — and more than 100 British Columbians have tried, and failed, to get the sexually suggestive phrase on their car. (In fairness, some of those people may have missed the suggestive meaning and had something more innocent in mind.)

For an initial $100 fee, and $40 extra per year, British Columbians can apply to get any combination of six letters and numbers they want put on their license plate.

But each application is reviewed by an ICBC employee and can be rejected on a number of grounds including that it’s sexually suggestive, offensive, religious, drug-related or glorifies speeding. If your plate is rejected, your application fee is refunded.

ICBC has occasionally released a list of plates it’s rejected over the past year or two. But, at The Vancouver Sun’s request, the public insurer for the first time released its entire database of rejected plates: more than 13,000 in all since 1987.

That data reveals not only some of the more amusing plates that have been deemed too offensive for B.C. roads, but which offensive plates people keep on asking for.

For example, GRINGO, SNAFU and FUBAR have all been rejected over the years for being offensive. But the most requested offensive plate is NEWFIE, rejected a dozen different times.

XLR8 is the most frequently rejected speed reference at 14, followed closely by 2FST4U (13) and BLUBYU (11).

After 4 PLAY, the most frequently rejected “suggestive” plate is SHWING at 18.

ICE is the most rejected alcohol/drug reference (11) and CANADA the most rejected political one (20), though ICBC says the real reason the country’s name is banned is because it’s reserved in case a government agency ever wants to use it.

Most applicants are smart enough to not put obvious swear words on their applications. In 25 years, there’s been only one rejection of a plate using the word “shit” (DA SHIT) and none using the f-word.

But that makes detecting plates that do violate the rules all that much harder.

For example, 4 JESUS, LUV GOD and ONE GOD have all been rejected as too religious. But the most rejected religious phrase, turned down eight times, is the far more cryptic IXOYE, a Greek acronym related to the popular Christian fish symbol.

More than a dozen variations of 3MTA3 have also been rejected as sexually suggestive. That phrase, found on the cover of a Beastie Boys album, reads “EAT ME” when seen through a rear-view mirror.

ICBC spokesman Adam Grossman explained in an email that the agency’s staff check each application against plates that have already been rejected but also do extensive online research to ensure a letter combination isn’t offensive.

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CLICK HEREto view images of the banned plates, or if using a handheld device, tap the picture above and swipe.

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“When reviewing any application, we do our best to predict how the majority of the public would interpret or react to each slogan,” he said. “It’s important that we look at the slogans from a variety of ages as well as cultural backgrounds.”

Plates can also be rejected because they are too similar to a regular licence plate (like SUE 305, rejected five times) or because they’re simply hard to read at a glance (like 99999, rejected seven times).

“We won’t approve slogans that may distract other drivers or reduce the care they use when driving,” said Grossman.

Customers who aren’t happy with the initial decision can appeal to an ICBC manager, though Grossman said such appeals are rarely successful.

Grossman said ICBC approves about 2,600 personalized plates a year and there are about 82,000 such plates currently in use in B.C.

If you go to vancouversun.com, you can see an interactive graphic displaying the most commonly rejected plates in each category and search a database of all 13,000 rejected plates by keyword.

4 PLAY the most commonly rejected vanity plate in B.C. (with graphic)

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